Rectangular container for the aging of alcoholic beverages

ABSTRACT

A wooden box-like container for the aging of alcoholic beverages. The container is in the form of a box having six panels or sides in which any three mutually adjacent panels are mutually perpendicular to one another and join one another at a corner. Any one of the panels of a group of three mutually adjacent panels contacts one adjacent panel in face to edge relation and the third panel of the group in edge to face relation. Each of the corners are formed in this fashion and all of the panels are held together in tight box-like form by prestressing means. This preserves the liquid tight contact at the face to edge and edge to face junction of the panels. Where the panels meet a cubical gap is left which is plugged by plug means. The prestressing means may be in the form of clamps of headers connected by prestress rods provided with tightening nuts. To provide substantially uniform loading at the line of contact between the header of head and the panel the header member may be prestressed in a parabolic pattern.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The use of wooden barrels as containers for beverages is time honoredand with respect to alcoholic beverages such as wine, brandy, whiskeyand the like, the barrel has several distinct functions. These functionsmay be summarized as storage, shipping, and aging. Aging will be takenas a complex of processes such as oxidation, extraction of flavorcomponents and other time dependent physico-chemical processes thataffect the sensory appreciation of the aged product. Long experience hasindicated that this aging process is highly dependent upon the ratio ofcontainer surface to container volume, and this ratio is in the order ofthree square feet per cubic foot for many alcoholic beverages.

CENTURIES OF USE OF THE BARREL HAVE RESULTED IN A CONTAINER THAT ISADMIRABLY SUITED TO STORING AND SHIPPING. Even though it appears to be asimple and even crude device, the barrel utilizes the rathersophisticated concept of prestressing in order to maintain its shape andprevent leaking at the joints between the staves. As a result of theprecision required in forming each piece, the skills required in thecooper's art are notable and require years to develop. As an alternativeto this skill, a complex industrial process is necessary.

Since shipping is no longer a necessary function of barrels, thecircular cross-section is not mandatory and the present invention isdirected toward improving upon the storing and aging functionspreviously mentioned. While there have been many attempts at producing anon-circular "barrel" or container, those that were simple enough to becommercially acceptable have not worked well, and those that worked wellhave not been simple enough.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the primary objective of my invention to define a simple flatsided container suitable for aging alcoholic beverages. Thisconfiguration is suitable for easy manufacture by machine technique andthe resulting cubical or other box-like shapes utilize storage spacemore efficiently than the traditional barrel. An additional objectivewill be to utilize both sides of the container wood in order to minimizethe cost of aging beverages in "new" wood. Aging can be carried out inused containers, but there are situations such as with bourbon whiskey,brandy, and some wines where unused or "new" wood is preferable. In thecase of bourbon it is also legally mandatory.

By means of this invention there has been provided a simply constructedwooden box-like container made up of six panels which in its simplestform may be in the form of a cube but it will be understood that four ofthe six sides may be elongated to form a box-like structure rather thana cubical box.

The six panels forming the box are assembled in a special fashion sothat the corners defined by mutually adjacent panels perpendicular toone another have a special face to edge relationship. Thus any one panelof any three mutually adjacent panels contacts one adjacent panel inface to edge relation while the third panel is contacted in edge to facerelation. All of the panels are held tightly close together in box-likeform by a prestressing means to provide liquid tight contact at the faceto edge and edge to face juncture of the panels.

The prestressing means may be in the form of a clamp provided by headmembers which bear against the opposed panels and hold an intermediatepanel which is in edge to face relation with the opposed panels inprestressed relation. The clamping means may be effected by prestressrods passing over or through the heads and may be tightened byadjustable tightening nuts.

The panels which may be made of conventional and easily manufacturedelongated parallel planar staves can be reused after break down asdesired. The staves are interchangeable since they are all the samelength and can be simply stacked when not in use.

Where the panels meet at the corner and because of the overlappingrelationship provided by the face to edge and edge to face juncture, acubical gap is left. This gap is plugged by a cubical plug such as aplug of cork or oak or other material which has the capability of slightswelling upon liquid contact.

In order to accomodate any slightly off-centered loading and distortionof the panel it may be desirable to provide a uniform line loading atthe midplane of the panels. This may be effected by a wire rope passingover the head members in a parabolic pattern. Tensioning of the wirerope produces a uniform load at the line of contact between the headmember and the panel.

The box-like beverage container of this invention is simply constructedwithout the requirement of any special tools and can be broken down whennot in use likewise without any special equipment. The panels asindividual staves when stave panels are employed can be stored with aminimum of space as can the box-like container as compared toconventional barrels. The panels are completely interchangeable toprovide an improved box-like container for beverages and is relativelyinexpensive in cost and manufacture.

The above features are objects of this invention and further objectswill appear in the detailed description which follows and will otherwisebe apparent to those skilled in the art.

For the purpose of illustration of this invention there is shown in theaccompanying drawings a preferred embodiment thereof. It is to beunderstood that these drawings are for purpose of illustration only andthat the invention is not limited thereto.

IN THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, is an isometric view partly broken away showing a box-likecontainer and a header prestressing means.

FIG. 2, is an enlarged fragmentary isometric view of a corner of thebox-like container.

FIG. 3, is a top plan view of the box showing the heads used asprestressed means, and

FIG. 4, is a top plan view and stress diagram showing the parabolicloading.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The container of this invention is generally referred to by thereference nemeral 10 in FIG. 1. It is comprised of six panels or sides12 constructed of flat staves 14 which are held together by heads 16 andprestressing rods 18.

The side panels 12 of the container are composed of individual straightwooden staves 14, preferably white oak, approximately 1-11/4 inchesthick by 3-5 inches wide. The six panels are assembled in essentiallymutually perpendicular planes to form a container of rectangular orsquare cross-sections. Note that for any three mutually adjacent panels,a given panel will contact one adjoining panel face to edge and theother adjoining panel edge to face. The panels 12 are held in positionby a prestressing force applied by heads 16 in the plane of the panels.A bunghole and bung 20 are provided at any desired location.

FIG. 2 shows a cubical plug 22 that is used to seal the gap caused wherethe edge staves of adjoining panels meet to form a corner of thecontainer. The plug 22 is slightly oversize with respect to thedimensions of the gap and composed of elastic material such as cork sothat it will be compressed under the prestressing heads 16, thuseffectively preventing any leakage at this point.

FIG. 3 shows a means of applying a nearly uniform compressive line loadthrough the panel directly beneath the head and into the interveningpanel between oposing heads. Threaded stress elements in the form ofrods 18 stretching between heads 16 on opposite sides of the panel 12are tensioned by tightening nuts 24 to a uniform torque. It will beunderstood that where desired cables having threaded ends may be used asthe stress elements where desired.

The prestressing load in the panels may be made uniform by using amaterial 19 directly under the heads that flows under pressure, such aspolyethylene at elevated temperatures, or crushes under uniformpressure, like styrofoam. Another technique involves buttering thecontact surface of the head with a paste of plaster-of-paris whichexpands upon drying. The paste will flow as it expands under thetightened head so that irregularities in loading are redistributed. Thisprestressing force not only seals the joints between the staves of theintervening panel, but also performs the same function at the jointbetween the panels. Swelling of the wood when wetted will close anyremaining passages.

FIG. 4 shows another means of loading which will produce a uniform lineload applied at the center of the panels. A wire rope 26 passing overthe head 16 in a parabolic pattern 28 is tensioned and because of thestatics of this shape a uniform load is produced at the line of contactbetween the head and the panel. This loading can be positioned at themid-plane of the intervening panel.

Although many attempts have been made toward perfecting a containerhaving planar sides, analysis of these designs indicates that failureeventually occurs because the configuration will not accomodate all ofthe distortions which will occur. When wetted a wood stave will expanddifferent amounts longitudinally and laterally, and a flat head set intothe croze of a rectangular body will expand at a different rate than thesides parallel to the grain of the head. This difference is the sourceof leaks. Examination of the present invention will indicate thatin-plane expansion in any direction will be accomodated and the contactat abutting edges will not be broken.

It should be noted that adhesives are not necessary in constructing thiscontainer and thus the resulting container is suitable for aging liquorssuch as brandy and whiskey having a high alcohol content which isreactive with most known adhesives over the long time of aging that istypical for these beverages. The results are deleterious to the beverageand may be dangerous to the health of the consumer.

Cupping and dislocation between staves may develop because of thewetting of only one side of the stave if the staves, which have smoothedges, are held in the panel configuration only by the frictional forcesdeveloped by the in-plane compressive load. In order to prevent thesedistortions it may be sufficient only to provide a mechanical interlockbetween staves in a panel, and this can be provided by dowels ortongue-in-groove joints for example. As an alternative it may bebeneficial to prestress the panels prior to container assembly by meansof multiple pretensioned wires at the midplane of the panels.

Because of the planar configuration of the panels the sides can bereversed and the unused chemical activity in the wood can be utilized.This prolongs the useful life of the container when aging in "new" orunextracted wood. Particular varieties of wood such as Limousin Oak fromFrance, are used to impart a unique conplexity in flavour and aroma inthe aged beverage, and since it is sometimes difficult to achieve theproper balance between these sensory effects and other effects desiredin barrel aging, the proposed invention offers a means of control notavailable with conventional barrels. By properly choosing and mixing thewood varieties and previous usage of the panels, the proper level ofwood extract can be obtained at the desired duration of aging.

Further economies and flexibility can be achieved by scraping the panelsafter use. Evidence exists, specifically for wine, that the extractactivity of a used barrel can be reactivated by removing the thin layerof wood that was affected by the previous use. Thus the panel may beused not once but several times in order to produce the aging effect ofnew wood. A conventional barrel, because of configuration, is difficultto reactivate.

It can be noted also, that this proposal will result in a reduction ofthe depletion of a limited natural resource, which is white oak as thepreferred material.

Where it is not necessary to impart the oak character to the beverageduring the aging process, the reversability of the panels is notnecessary and the sides may be joined in a permanent assembly.

Another approach to forming the panels or container will be to constructthem with reconstituted wood fiber. The fiber can be molded underpressure and elevated temperature of about 350° F to form the completepanel or container. It is, of course, necessary to insure that theresulting product has essentially the same chemical and physicalcharacteristics as natural wood in order to ensure that the agingprocess will proceed to the same end-point as obtained with naturalwood.

Another version of construction which can be used is the formation ofthe panels from veneers or thin plies of wooden materials. In thisversion, it is only necessary that the interior ply in contact with thebeverage be of the desirable material and sufficient thickness. Theother plies can then be chosen to provide the necessary structualstrength and diffusion characteristics. By proper choice of constructionthe resulting panel can be formed and provide the same chemical andphysical environment as found with natural materials.

At 3 square feet of surface per cubic feet of volume, which is thetypical for a traditional 48 gallon barrel, the proposed container willbe approximately 2 feet on a side and contain 60 gallons. The increasein absolute volume will reduce the cellar operations such as "topping"or adding wine to the barrel to replace evaporation losses. The cubicalshape will also provide an improvement in use of storage space. Whereasconventional barrels will realistically occupy 30% of the space requiredfor storage, the cubical shape will utilize up to 50% of the space. Thussignificantly more volume of stored material can be accomodated on agiven space by adopting the cubical shape.

Other cellar operations would benefit from this choice also. Care of thedemounted panels between uses has marked advantages over the regimerequired for barrels. When not in use, barrels must be carefully storedand maintained in order to prevent deterioration and shrinkage of staveswhich would cause subsequent leakage. In addition the storage space foran empty barrel is only a little less than the barrel that is filled andin productive use. However, with the proposed container constructed withdemountable panels, the panels may be dismounted after use, cleaned,dried, and stacked without any further attention until the next usage.The space required for storage of shipping of the disassembled containerwill therefore be much less than the assembled container.

It will also be noted from an inspection of FIGS. 1 and 3 that the headmembers form a support, much like a pallet, to space the barrel abovethe floor or like surface and permits stacking. This spacing providesfor ventilation and access to the top and bottom surfaces.

Various changes and modifications may be made in this invention as willbe readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes andmodifications are within the scope and teaching of this invention asdefined by the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A box-like container for the aging of alcoholicbeverages and the like, said container being comprised of sixrectangular planar panels, any three mutually adjacent panels beingmutually perpendicular to each other and defining a corner of saidcontainer, any one panel contacting an adjacent panel in face to edgerelation and the third panel of any three mutually adjacent panels inedge to face relation, the rectangular panels meeting at each corner inoverlapping face to edge relation and leaving a cubical gap at saidcorner and a plug means provided at said gap to prevent leakage at saidcorner all of said panels and the plug means being held in tightbox-like form by a prestressing means to provide liquid tight contact atthe face to edge and edge to face juncture of said panels.
 2. Thecontainer of claim 1 in which the prestressing means comprises clampsadapted to tighten opposed panels bearing against an intermediate panelwhich meets said opposed panels in edge to face relation said clampscomprising head members and said head members being prestressed in aparabolic pattern to provide a substantially uniform loading at the lineof contact between the head and the panel.
 3. The container of claim 2in which a wire rope is passed over the head members in a parabolicpattern and is tensioned to provide the aforementioned substantiallyuniform loading.